A blog launched on the 41st anniversary of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC), the first pro-life organisation in the world, established on 11 January 1967. SPUC has been a leader in the educational and political battle against abortion, human embryo experimentation and euthanasia since then. I write this blog in my role as SPUC's chief executive, commenting on pro-life news, reflecting on pro-life issues and promoting SPUC's work.

Monday, 4 February 2013

Before the second reading debate, in the House of Commons tomorrow, of the government's Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill, I hope that libertarians on the right and left of British politics will watch or read Bruno Nestor Azerot's recent moving speech in the French National Assembly. Bruno Nestor Azerot was elected to the French National Assembly on June 17, 2012 representing the department of Martinique. Here is an English summary of what he says:

I have supported all the bills advocated by the left until now.

Gay marriage is a dishonest concept because homosexuality is a matter belonging to the private sphere. Homosexuals need rights of legal protection, but marriage is a public institution.

This bill seeks to create a new norm for the institution of the family, which would change the fundamental rules on marriage, inheritance, consanguinity.

Society has given a legal framework to a natural gift: the union of a man and woman.

It is not the law that denies homosexuals the right to have children: it is nature.

Formerly, the purpose of marriage was regarded as procreation. Now marriage is regarded as a concept of sentiment.

Hedonistic individualism threatens to overthrow the personalist and socialist doctrine on which our whole society, underpinned by the values of solidarity, liberty, equality,has been based.

The family is the pivot of society. If this bill is passed, the family is liable to explode.

The “new equality” would create confusion between genders and upset the values on which our society is based.

Our responsibility to history is great.

The “new equality” would weaken the foundation of the society constructed after the abolition of slavery.

[At this point, the speaker becomes emotional, on one occasion thumping the podium with both hands.]

I am the descendant of an oppressed people. Slaves were denied the right to have children. Marriage was forbidden.

The “new equality” would be a denial of reality, establish a new oppression. The confusion of genders would undo the emancipation of women and lead to their oppression.

It would be forbidden to differentiate between men and women, at the risk of being accused of discrimination.

I affirm the right to marriage between the different, not the similar.

Rather than taking action to solve the problems of housing, youth unemployment, etc, we are instead directing our energies to the promotion of “gay marriage”.

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John Smeaton

About me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 33 years. I became director of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.

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